Shoaib Akhtar likens himself to Brazilian icon Ronaldo Nazario if he swapped Pakistan cricket to play football

Shoaib Akhtar likens himself to Brazilian icon Ronaldo Nazario if he swapped Pakistan cricket to play football originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:Shoaib Akhtar compares himself to football icon Ronaldo Nazario. • >Fast bowler jokes he'd have outpaced R9, CR7 on field. • >The Pakistan legend praised Lionel Messi, Spain's World Cup 2026 run, and football's global legends.Shoaib Akhtar picks his football alter egoFast bowling legend Shoaib Akhtar has drawn an unlikely comparison between himself and Brazilian football icon Ronaldo Nazario, suggesting that had cricket not claimed him first, he could have carved out a career on the football pitch resembling the style of the man widely known as R9.

>The Brazilian star captured public imagination with his 2002 World Cup heroics, in which he won the Golden Boot and, in the process, inspired Brazil to a fifth World Cup title.

>Akhtar leaned into the comparison, joking that had he truly run at full speed on a football field, both Nazario and Cristiano Ronaldo would have struggled to keep up with him.

>He didn't stop there, adding that thinking about his own game also brought to mind Zinedine Zidane, though he admitted his approach would have looked rather different, as he would have relished physical contact on the pitch and likely ended up breaking a fair few opponents' legs along the way rather than letting them win aerial duels unchallenged.

>"First of all, what kind of footballer would I have been? I would have been like Nazário. R9," Shoaib began.

>"And brother, if I ran properly, then R9, CR7 would be left behind. By the way, if I think about Shoaib bhai, I am reminded of Zidane too. I would have hit a lot! I would have broken many legs!"

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Praise for Messi and Spain's dominant World Cup runAkhtar turned serious when discussing Lionel Messi, calling him arguably the greatest footballer to ever walk the planet, pointing to his haul of eight Ballon d'Or awards and a staggering trophy count of 48 across his career.

>He also referenced Messi's remarkable workload, noting that the Argentine had reportedly logged somewhere between 18 and 22 hours of actual playing time within a single month recently, a testament to his enduring fitness and hunger for the game even at this stage of his career.

>"Eight Ballon d'Ors, a 48-trophy streak, the greatest man to walk on planet Earth as a footballer, the young Messi. I mean, what can I say about him? Recently, just in a month, he played around 18 hours of football. 18 to 22 hours of football he played," Shoaib claimed.

>Akhtar reserved further praise for Spain's 2026 World Cup performance, describing their overall composition, tactical setup and in-game adjustments as outstanding throughout.

>"But hats off to Spain, man, their team was very good. I mean, they're just fabulous. They were just tremendous throughout the tournament. Their composition, their attack, their changes... and ever since the rules changed, five substitutes and one extra substitute in extra time, when that came, I think Spain benefited the most from it," he added.

Agustin Marcarian/Imagn Images

When pressed further on his personal favourites, Akhtar circled back to naming Ronaldo Nazario as his pick, while also acknowledging Cristiano Ronaldo, adding with a laugh that he had to mention CR7 given his son was watching the interview.

>Reflecting more broadly on football's evolution, Akhtar traced a lineage of legendary players who had shaped the sport's global appeal, starting with Diego Maradona and moving through Ronaldo, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, all the way to current stars like Kylian Mbappe and Neymar.

>"Everyone enjoyed it, man, over these legends. You see for yourself, starting from Diego Maradona, to Nazário, to Ronaldo, to Messi, to CR7... reaching all the way here, to Mbappé, to Neymar...," he said.

>"You know, see, because of these legends, football benefited so much. Because of these legends, how much football sold! Imagine the rights; where did the prices go? Imagine how many people got inspired!"

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Cricketers dreaming of football stardom isn't newAkhtar's comparison to Ronaldo Nazario makes for an entertaining soundbite, but it also reflects something fairly common among elite athletes: the tendency to imagine themselves succeeding in a completely different sport purely based on raw physical attributes like speed or aggression.

>There's a certain charm in a fast bowler, someone who built his entire career terrorising batters with pace, picturing himself doing the same to defenders on a football pitch.

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>That said, translating express pace with a cricket ball into elite football skill is a much bigger leap than these light-hearted comparisons suggest.

>Technical ability, ball control and years of specialised training matter just as much as raw athleticism. Still, moments like these humanise sporting legends and remind fans that even at the top of one discipline, athletes remain fans of other games too.

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